Econlib

The Library

Other Sites

 Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow Bentham to Sir William Pulteney. - The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 10 (Memoirs Part I and Correspondence)

Return to Title Page for The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 10 (Memoirs Part I and Correspondence)

Search this Title:

Also in the Library:

Subject Area: Political Theory
Subject Area: Law

Bentham to Sir William Pulteney. - Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 10 (Memoirs Part I and Correspondence) [1843]

Edition used:

The Works of Jeremy Bentham, published under the Superintendence of his Executor, John Bowring (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1838-1843). 11 vols. Vol. 10.

Part of: The Works of Jeremy Bentham, 11 vols.

About Liberty Fund:

Liberty Fund, Inc. is a private, educational foundation established to encourage the study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.


Bentham to Sir William Pulteney.

“Queen’s Square Place,
Westminster, 28th April, 1802.

“Sir,—

In common with the rest of the public, I remember, so long ago as the time of Mr Fox’s East India Bill, looking up to you as, beyond comparison, the most watchful and efficient, as well as among the most independent guardians of the Constitution.

“At present, feeling a sort of call upon me, to contribute my humble part towards bringing before Parliament, what presents itself to my view as an anti-constitutional misdemeanour of the first magnitude—no less than a wilful, corrupt, and obstinate exercise of dispensing power (not to speak of a long train of comparative peccadilloes) on the part of some principal members of the departed administration, in conjunction with one or two of the present; in looking round for a parliamentary leader, I can see no man to whom, on such an occasion, I could address myself with anything like equal confidence.

“Though, in my individual capacity, the principal part of the mischief of the offence has fallen upon me, I do not consider myself as having, in the common acceptation of the term, a personal interest in the inquiry; having had reason given me to expect, that under the present administration, such reparation as I may be capable of receiving, will not be refused;—but, as to their willingly concurring in setting on foot an inquiry relative to the public crime, you will judge whether any such support would rationally be to be expected.

“Time and reflection have, to such a degree, cooled my feelings on the subject, that your opinion on the question, whether or not it would be best for the country on the whole—in a constitutional point of view—that the business should be brought to light, or suffered to rest in its present obscurity, would contribute, in no small degree, towards determining me whether to go on with it, or let it drop.

“Amongst other members of Parliament I can take upon me to mention not only Mr Wilberforce, and Sir Charles Bunbury, but the Speaker and Mr Nepean, as being fully impressed with the persuasion, that the treatment given to the individual has been, in an unprecedented degree, oppressive and unjust,—and the conduct of the late administration, in respect of it, altogether indefensible. The two former gentlemen have been spontaneous and active, and, as they have assured me, not unsuccessful in their applications to the present administration for redress; but you will go before me in conceiving that, for different reasons, neither of them are men to be applied to for such a purpose as that in question here. Sir Charles has, indeed, been kind enough to offer to say anything that I would wish him to say in Parliament; but it was not in the nature of the case, that his views on the occasion should have gone beyond the particular concern in which I am personally interested.

“Mr Nepean proffered himself at the time, as willing, upon occasion, to avow and support in Parliament a plan of adjustment, which he had already negotiated with the late Treasury and Mr Long. He made no secret to me of his looking upon their conduct, on that occasion, as calling for parliamentary inquiry,—and of his readiness to declare his opinion of it to the face of Mr Pitt; Mr Pitt being then minister, and then, and always his personal friend. In a narrative which I have almost finished, I refer all along to his testimony. But for a man in his most laborious office,—and unused to public speaking,—for a secretary of the Admiralty to take the lead on a great question of constitutional law, and that might come to involve a long operation of committe-work, is, of course, not to be thought of.

“As to the Speaker [Abbot]—ever since his being in that situation—I have kept aloof from him, as a suitor from a judge. But he has never been either backward or secret in his expression of the sense he has always entertained of the conduct of the late Administration towards me,—and having, contrary to my wishes, heard (through my brother) of my having something upon the anvil, which was not destined to be kept secret, he accosted me t’other day with the spontaneous expression of his wishes for my success.

“None of the gentlemen above-mentioned have any conception of the anti-constitutional offence; none of them having ever had any communication of a concealed letter, by the publication of which it would be brought to light. I should have excepted Mr Nepean; but he, though struck with the gross errors he saw it full of, and accordingly, as a member of the Administration, having been anxious for the suppression of it, yet, not being a lawyer, nor, at the time, so much as suspecting the criminal consciousness (or, as our English lawyers call it, the mala fides) with which be afterwards saw but too much reason to believe it accompanied, it certainly did not, at the time, present itself to him in so serious a light, any more than it did to me, till I came to bestow a more particular attention to it in that particular point of view.

“To the Opposition, an investigation of this sort would be such a game to play as you can much better conceive than I can; but having, all my life long, been as much above party in one sense, as I have been below it in another, it is but natural I should address myself, in preference, to a man who is superior to it in every sense.

“I write this, therefore, Sir, to beg to know, whether—supposing the charge to be as above described, and the evidence sufficient, in your judgment, for the support of it—you would feel inclined to take it up, and take the lead in bringing it before Parliament. In the event of your answering in the affirmative, I would transmit to you, in the first instance, a half-sheet of paper, in which the most important of the articles are recapitulated; with or without another short paper or two, such as may serve to throw some fuller light on the business, without consuming too much of your time, in this early and uncertain stage of it.

“But as no person whatever but my amanuensis has seen what you will then see, I hope you will not refuse me the favour of your assurance, that, without my special consent, whatever I communicate to you on the subject, shall not be suffered to meet any other eye or ear but yours. The small remnant of the present Parliament is, of course, altogether out of the question; but though, for obvious reasons, a regular notice cannot be given as from Parliament to Parliament, it would be a point for consideration, whether an intimation to that effect might or might not be an eligible preparative.

“The more speedy the answer, the greater will be the favour to, Sir, your most obedient and humble servant,” &c.